On this Memorial Day Weekend, I have been thinking about the Holiday during the course of my life. As a child, it was all about parades and cookouts; though I participated in many of those parades, waving my dime-store flag, I had only a vague concept of what or whom we were honoring.
By my early teens, Memorial Day signaled the opening of our swim club where I spent most of the summer and for which I competed on the swim team. As young adulthood approached, such clubs became the source of my summer employment, "saving lives" and teaching water safety.
But the full impact of the Holiday would come late in college, when I faced being drafted into the Vietnam War. A staunch opponent of that conflict, I was fortunate to get into medical school, a reprieve that outlasted the war. It was a. period of mixed emotions, unwilling to condone the war but respecting those who served. That inner turmoil persists to this day; reluctant to accept war as the answer to global issues, I honor those who died in the service of our country and thank those who, by their very presence, discourage if not prevent modern conflicts.
See also: Memorial Day
